Protoganda's graphics were inspired by old movies with special effects made without the use of computers. And to some extent by the feeling you get from watching old protoganda movies. The gameplay is a fairly straight boss fight flare, with a focus on time, rather than lives.

You start out with three minutes playtime. Defeating a boss gives you an extra fifteen seconds. Getting your ship blown up deducts forty. If the timer reaches zero, you lose.

There are two different gameplay modes, 'absorb' and 'shield'. Shield gives the player a defensive tool that can be used to get out of tight spots; press Z + X to repell bullets. You also get a chargeable shooting function that automatically targets the enemy. Hold X until your ship is glowing, and then release. Z fires your main cannon.

In Absorb mode, I borrowed heavily from the great Ikaruga. You can switch color to become invulnerable against bullets of the same color as yourself. Touching a bullet absorbs it, and you build up power to release a charge shot, as well as replenish a bit of time. Bullets of the color opposite to the enemy does more damage. Press the C key to release a charged shot.

There are two online highscore boards (one for each mode), and a variety of different options to extend the fun. - cactus

The bosses names are taken from a list of the 50 most common Russian family names. Press the F1 key to change resolution to 640x480 for a larger gameplay window display. Use the R key during a game to restart immediately without returning to the main menu. A sequel to Protoganda is in the works.

Man, I read that as Prot Agenda, which is Fart Agenda in Dutch O_O How many games has Cactus cranked out this month already, btw? Doesn't he have to work, or eat, or sleep? Does he have some framework and a pool of graphics he throws together each week for a new game? This pace is seriously surreal O_O

I finally broke down and tried Clean Asia the other week, and while that was amazing, this is just insane, if somewhat less polished. It's the little things, such as not changing the music at all throughout the entire thing (keeps your adrenaline up).

The only thing I find obnoxious so far is that the bullets occasionally give me the sensation that they are changing direction mid-flight. But it's a fairly small thing, keeps you on your toes.

For a simple shmup, it's actually pretty damn addictive. I love the graphical style, which is pretty much cactus' signature. The music is ace too, really put me in the mood for some boss blasting.

As far as the dual gameplay goes, I have to say I prefer "shield", but "absorb", obviously taken from Ikaruga, is pretty fun too. It just relies more on memorization of the bullet patterns, but I like the different gameplay options.

I felt that the accelerated movement of the player's ship was just a slight bit annoying, but it didn't bother me too much (nothing like some shmups where movement is so slippery you can barely control it). I'm just the kind of guy that likes to have fully precise control over his ship's movement in bullet-hells.

Overall it's an ace game. And even though I can't see it for myself, I bet Tim has made it his duty to master this shmup as well.